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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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So day two of our sojourn in Rutland continues. All things being equal, we shall return to Devon tomorrow. However, I shall miss mother terribly, and have already promised her that I will be back in September to kidnap her. However, I will be glad to be back on a proper computer again. But enough of my ramblings, there are bloggythings to tell you about.

As I have written on a number of occasions in these pages, my younger stepdaughter Olivia has never been particularly impressed with my taste in music, and considers everything that I write about to be hippie hogwash. That being said, she really likes Mimi Page's album and I keep on forgetting to tell her that 'im who plays the Celtic pipes in Nightwish is also one of ours. I know that Nightwish are one of her particular favourites, and so she has probably read this interview before, because I lifted it from their website...http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/troy-donockley-nightwish-interview.html

On this day in 1866 Beatrix Potter was born. Potter was an author most famous for her nightmarish tales of terror, usually involving Doctor Moreau like creations that act like humans, including walking on two legs and wearing human clothes, while engaging in immoral pursuits like grand carrot theft and trespass.

The following winged wonder only became known to me in mid-October 2007, when Jan Patience, acting editor of the now-defunct British monthly magazine Beyond for which I contributed a major cryptozoology article each issue, brought to my attention a truly extraordinary email that she had just received from a reader. At that time, I was preparing a lead article on lesser-known British mystery beasts for the next issue of the magazine, so the email reached me in time for me to investigate it further and include a full account of the case in my article (Beyond, January 2008), and it is this account of mine that I shall now quote from here.http://karlshuker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/introducing-britains-bat-winged-monkey.html

Acherontia atropos, is nothing if not distinctive in appearance. A rare migrant to the UK, with a wingspan that can exceed 5.5 in and a weight that can fall little short of 0.1 oz, it is incontestably Britain's largest species of moth. Its plum-coloured, wavy-lined forewings and rich golden-yellow hindwings, not to mention its bulky body striped boldly underneath in dark brown and primrose bands, also render it one of this country's most attractive moths. Nevertheless, all of these features are eclipsed by a single, but very singular, additional characteristic - one which instantly identities this species and distinguishes it from all others in Britain, which has woven around it a near-indestructible web of folklore and fear, and which has earned it its extremely sinister-sounding English name.http://karlshuker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/at-sign-of-deathshead.html

Whilst on our honeymoon in the good old county of Norfolk earlier this month we came across a cute village name. It reminded us a little of Woolfardisworthy. It’s not quite as nice but we wanted to share it with you.

Denise Ginley

Photographer Denise Ginley shot pics of the rotting, sand-covered corpse on Sunday while strolling with her boyfriend along the Manhattan side of the East River.

What the hell IS that thing?
A bloated, pig-like carcass spotted beneath the Brooklyn Bridge over the weekend has spooked New Yorkers buzzing about mutant river “monsters.”
Photographer Denise Ginley shot pics of the rotting, sand-covered corpse on Sunday. “My boyfriend and I were walking along the East River on our way to a farmer's market when we spotted it among some driftwood on a small stretch of sand below the Brooklyn Bridge that you can barely call a beach,” she emailed the Daily News.PHOTOS: AMAZING ANIMAL ODDITIES

Denise Ginley

Photographer Denise Ginley says, "We were horrified by it and we took some camera phone pictures and then finally we decided to come back with my camera and I got up the courage to climb over the fence and get closer to it."

"We were horrified by it and we took some camera phone pictures and then finally we decided to come back with my camera and I got up the courage to climb over the fence and get closer to it," she told the blog ANIMAL New York.

Denise Ginley

In the post, titled “We’re Supposed to Believe the New East River Monster Is Just a Pig?” Daily Intel writer Joe Coscarelli tagged the rotting hulk photographed by Denise Ginley, "Wilbur."

Ginley sent the photos to Gothamist, which published them on Monday and sparked furious speculation -- and a few conspiracy theories -- on local blogs and social media.

Denise Ginley

Photographer Denise Ginley thinks it is odd that the Parks Department so quickly said the creature was a “discarded cooked pig” and that the department “threw it out.”

Vickie Karp, a spokeswoman for the Parks Department, said the creature was a “discarded cooked pig” and that the department “threw it out.”